Older adult sexuality in the practice and training of geriatricians: a qualitative study

OBJECTIVE: To understand the academic training of geriatrics residents and their supervisors regarding the sexuality of older adults, as well as practical approaches to the subject in their work routines. METHODS: This qualitative study was conducted with geriatrics residents and their supervisors at a public hospital in Recife, PE, Brazil in 2019 and 2020. RESULTS: A partial understanding of the respondents’ concept of sexuality was identified through statements that expressed confusion between sexual intercourse and sexuality, as well as a lack of knowledge about sexuality on an individual level. Although the respondents affirmed the importance of discussing the subject, they reported that they do not, except passively, depending on the patient’s questions, despite the fact that they perceive their patients’ difficulty in seeking out a health service to talk about sexuality-related issues. Finally, the lack of an approach to sexuality in geriatric consultations was linked with gaps in undergraduate and specialization programs about general care for older adults, resulting in a feeling of unpreparedness to face the taboos and prejudices associated with sexuality. CONCLUSION: Although professionals consider it important to address sexuality with patients, most of them do not do so in medical consultations due to a number of difficulties, including the lack of a protocol to follow, which leads to a passive approach. Therefore, professionals acknowledge the difficulty of addressing the subject and associate it with deficiencies in their academic training.

Older Adult Sexuality, Partnership, and Health: Cohort Comparisons of Baby Boomers and Traditionalists

This paper updates prior work on older adult sexuality, partnership, and health by examining the most current wave of the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project (2015-16), a population-based study of health and social factors on a national scale. Comparing data from Wave I, Cohort 1 (2005-06) and Wave I, Cohort 2 (2015-16), we ask whether there are differences in partnership, sexual behaviors and health outcomes between two cohorts (‘Traditionalists’ vs. ‘Baby Boomers’). Additionally, we examine whether sexual frequency is related to physical health, particularly the health conditions of arthritis, diabetes, cognitive impairment, and prior stroke, in both cohorts. We find significant differences between cohorts through a logistic model. For Traditionalists, age, gender, education level, partnership status and diabetes were all significantly related to sexual activity (p < 0.001). Older adults were less sexually active; men were more sexually active; the higher educated were more sexually active; diabetes patients were less sexually active; and partnered were more sexually active. For Baby Boomers, only age and partnership status were significantly related to sexual activity (p < 0.001); gender and diabetes diagnosis were also related (p <0.005). Significantly, partnership status for Boomers is negatively related to sexual activity; the other three relationships – age is related to less sexual activity, men have slightly higher sexual activity, and diabetes was related to less sexual activity – were as expected. Importantly, our findings may imply that partnership or marriage is not as significant to sexual activity, or to health outcomes, as previously believed.